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Category Archives: MRSA

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

FoodFacts.com read some information today that may prove to be very valuable to the entire population when it comes to fighting antibiotic resistant staph infections. In the recent past, these infections have been becoming increasingly more common and have posed a real threat to survival.

A study published this week in the Journal of Clinical Investigation was conducted by several institutions including The Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, UCLA and the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. It was focused on the increasing number of “super infections” that have been springing up worldwide.

For generations, antibiotics have proven to be a powerful defense against any number of infections … and in many cases still are. But in an increasing number of instances there have been difficulties with the resistance of certain forms of bacteria to antibiotics. Specifically pointed out was the staphylococcus aureus bacteria or staph infection.
In the study, clinical doses of nicotinamide or Vitamin B3 successfully increased the number and efficiency of a special kind of white blood cell that can kill off harmful bacteria. The study noted that this may well give doctors a new way to treat deadly staph infection that could possibly be combined with existing antibiotics. It could possibly stimulate and enhance the power of the human immune system and help it respond to infection with more intense action against infection.

Animals in the study were given Vitamin B3 at therapeutic levels that were far greater than our normal diets could provide. The affects of the vitamin were also studied in human blood. The amounts of the vitamin used were considered safe in the human population. It is important to note that the study did not focus on whether or not regular doses of the vitamin (whether through diet or supplementation) would have the same effects for treating bacterial infection and they don’t want to encourage people to begin taking larger doses of Vitamin B3 because of the findings.

Doctors who had studied bacterial infections for the last decade found that Vitamin B3 has the ability to enable antimicrobial genes that increase the body’s immune cells to kill bacteria.

One of the most exciting discoveries found through the study was the effectiveness of Vitamin B3 on one of the most common and most serious staff infections affecting the public today – MRSA. Unfortunately it is accepted that the widespread usage of antibiotics has contributed to the increase of instances of MRSA infection. Dr. George Liu, an infectious disease expert at Cedars-Sinai and co-senior author on the study, said that “this vitamin is surprisingly effective in fighting off and protecting against one of today’s most concerning public health threats.” When Vitamin B 3 was used in human blood in clinical doses it appeared to destroy the staph infection in only a few hours.